crafty blog about toymaking, quilting and finding inspiration

patchwork book

Here’s my new favorite book – patchwork and purses! Another excellent Japanese craft book to play with. The instructions on this one seem very complicated. Or very simple depending on how you look at it. They basically (I think) say, sew quilt, make bag. Got it! Many thanks to sweet Valentina for offering pick me up something from Kinokuniya (Japanese bookstore in NY). Poor girl didn’t know what she was getting herself into!

I want to make almost every single thing in this book. Here are a few of my favorites…

and it even includes helpful lifestyle tips like how apples should be eaten with spoons!

Stop with all the cute quilt inspiration! I should spend the upcoming weekend cleaning and doing laundry, and now all I can think about is finishing the quilt I started last fall and going through my fabric stash and planning another one.

I saw that book in a store here recently. Very cute. The book is unique because not many (patchwork books) are for machine sewing. On the other hand, the instructions for templates, hand piecing intricate patterns, etc. are fantastic in most books. Rest assured, you’ve got a Japanese-crafty-book pipeline over here in Tokyo for anything that catches your fancy! (By the way, the prices for these kinds of books on Ebay are outrageous–books are quite reasonably priced here; the Zakka books, for example, are only $10-$12 apiece for gorgeous color photos. Of course shipping costs add to that, though)

Wow, these are great quilting ideas! You have been giving me such quilting inspiration lately, I am trying my best to direct it towards finishing projects that have been sitting around, but these pictures have given me all kinds of ideas for new projects!

Laural – I know! It is so hard to keep unfinished’s in the game when new exciting things are popping up all the time!
Everyone – about those Zakka books, maybe they can be ordered online through Kinokuniya’s bookweb? Seems like there’s a cart and all. But no info on shipping costs that I see offhand and the page where they want you to enter your credit card information isn’t secure (no https). So? I don’t know. There is an email address on the cart page. They might be able to help.http://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/guest/cgi-bin/wshoseaohb.cgi?W-NIPS=9978248706&AREA=02

I immediately went and bought that patchwork book after I saw some of the projects in it. I know it will become my new favorite too! Those other Japanese cute links are so awesome, it’s painful. Thanks for the inspiration…

Reading

My Book

A captivating gang of 24 huggable, lovable creatures to sew—from classics like Margot, a topsy-turvy doll, and the button-jointed teddy bear Bjorn Bjornson, to irresistible Evelyn, a wool felt inchworm decked out in mod glasses and a kerchief, and Koji, a fiercely cute spiked softie monster. There’s something for everyone here—from kids to grown-ups and from beginning sewers to advanced dollmakers. Published by STC Craft, August, 2010.